Aims: Obesity-related complications have been identified across the entire childbearing journey. This study investigated changes in obesity prevalence and their impact on obstetric outcomes in a regional hospital in Victoria, Australia. Methods: All women delivering during 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2016 were eligible to participate. Trends over time and outcomes were assessed on body mass indices (BMI). Incidences of complications were compared by BMI categories. The effect of obesity on hospital length of stay (LoS) was further assessed using the Generalised Estimating Equations approach.Results: During the study period a total of 6661 women of whom 27.5% were overweight, and 16.1, 7.7, and 5.5% were respectively obese class I, class II, and class III, contributed to 8838 births. An increased trend over time in the prevalence of obesity (BMI > 35.0) (P = 0.041) and a decreased trend for vaginal deliveries for the whole sample (P = 0.003) were found. Multiple adverse outcomes were associated with increasing maternal BMI including increased risk of gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, emergency caesarean section, shoulder dystocia, macrosomia, and admission to special care. The multivariable analysis showed no associations between LoS and BMI. Conclusions:Over a short period of seven years, this study provides evidence of a significant trend toward more obesity and fewer vaginal births in a non-urban childbearing population, with increasing trends of poorer health outcomes.Assessing needs and risk factors tailored to this population is crucial to ensuring a model of care that safeguards a sustainable and effective regional maternity health service. K E Y W O R D Sbody mass index, obesity, pregnancy outcome, rural health, trends SUPPORTING INFORMATIONAdditional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article.

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This article discusses the use of the Most Significant Change (MSC) technique in a mixed-methods evaluation of a pilot wellbeing programme for obstetrics and gynaecology doctors-in-training introduced at a large public hospital during Melbourne, Australia’s second coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, which occurred from 7 July to 26 October 2020. The evaluation was conducted remotely using videoconferencing technology, to conform with pandemic restrictions. MSC complemented the program’s participatory principles and was chosen because it seeks to learn about participants’ perceptions of programme impacts by evaluating their stories of significant change. Stakeholders select one story exemplifying the most significant change resulting from the evaluated program. Inductive thematic analysis of all stories is combined with reasons for making the selection, to inform learnings ( Dart & Davies, 2003 ; Tonkin et al., 2021 ). Nine stories of change were included in the selection. The most significant change was a more supportive workplace culture brought about by enabling basic needs to be met and breaking down hierarchical barriers. This was linked to five interconnected themes – connection, caring, communication, confidence and cooperation. The evaluation learnings are explored and reflections on remotely conducting MSC evaluation are shared.

Background Differentiating between infectious gastroenteritis and a flare of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be difficult. Small studies have shown that thrombocytosis may not occur in infectious gastroenteritis. We aimed to determine whether thrombocytosis is a reliable biomarker in distinguishing between these two diagnoses in patients presenting with diarrhoea. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted at a tertiary referral IBD centre. From January 2000 and December 2018, patients admitted with acute diarrhoea were included. Inclusion criteria were infective gastroenteritis, IBD flare or both. IBD diagnosis was confirmed by standard clinical, radiological and histopathological criteria. Clinical and biochemical parameters were collected. Results There were 351 infectious and 506 IBD flare cases. Among these 216 (42.8%) had Crohn’s disease, 276 (54.7%) ulcerative colitis, and 13(2.6%) had IBD-unclassified. Table 1 summarises the main results. Those with acute IBD flare had a longer duration of diarrhoea, bloody diarrhoea, lower albumin and anaemia (p < 0.05 for all comparisons). Patients with infectious diarrhoea were more likely to be older, female, have vomiting and fever and leucocytosis (p < 0.05 for all comparisons). Median platelet count was higher in patients with IBD flares, 334 vs. 220 (p < 0.001) and persisted on multivariate analysis (p < 0.001, OR1.45). On multivariate analysis, other significant associations for IBD flare were age (OR.85, p < 0.001) female sex (OR.23, p < 0.110), blood in faeces (OR 5.98, p < 0.001) vomiting (OR .17, p < 0.001) and albumin (OR.83, p = 0.02). A sub-analysis compared patients with known IBD and infectious gastroenteritis with an identified pathogen (n = 47), with those with an IBD flare alone showed no significant difference in platelet count between groups (419 vs. 465, respectively, p = 0.17). Conclusion Our study shows significant differences between clinical and biological markers in patients with acute IBD flares compared with those with infectious gastroenteritis. In particular, thrombocytosis occurs in IBD flares but not in infectious gastroenteritis. This biomarker can be used to differentiate between these diagnoses and guide management.